Nepenthium
by Square-Peas
Summary: Lupin's made a terrible mistake that he's positive was not supposed to happen, and he'll do anything to fix it- even reverse time... Please R&R!
1. Default Chapter

Nepenthium  
  
Remus Lupin decided that he was thinking mainly of himself when he carried out his foolish plan. He decided that he had been reckless and selfish and because of it Harry was dead and it was his mistake and his fault. No one should ever suffer for another's mistake, that's just not ht e way it should be.  
  
He didn't care if they thought he was crazy because they didn't matter, all that mattered was finding a way to reverse what had happened because it wasn't supposed to end like this, he could feel it. Instinctively, unexplainably, he knew it wasn't supposed to end this way, tied with a neat little bow like a fairy tale.  
  
He'd thought about a time turner, but realized that wouldn't do much good, it can't resurrect people permanently, history plays out just how it wishes in that area, as he well knew.  
  
It was at this point he decided to look for a spell to travel back in time.  
  
At this point he also decided that he was completely insane, but he tried not to think like that because then he'd be just like all those people that don't understand, that don't have the same history, emotion, thought pattern as he.  
  
He'd heard all the stories about people who had attempted this feat. They'd been mutilated, decapitated, gone insane or changed the course of history. But it didn't matter, didn't matter, because if he did nothing it would be worse.  
  
So he looked through all the history books and all the old spell books, even the forbidden ones they weren't even supposed to think about. It was a dusty backroom in the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters. The atmosphere was thick, dusty, quiet. Old and undisturbed. Like a tomb.  
He searched until he came unto a spell in an old spell book that for some reason caught his attention. It was just a spell for cleaning dishes, and a very outdated one at that. But somehow...  
  
It was hard to think he struggled against the fatigue threatening to pull him under... images were getting foggy in his mind and the words on the page made no sense to him...  
  
Suddenly, with his eyes half closed and only halfway conscious, he started because the words on the page were becoming different words.  
  
I'm dreaming. He thought. It's impossible.  
  
Then he woke up with a start and realized he had, in fact, been dreaming, but he came to an important realization:  
  
The spell wasn't what it seemed, it was something else, he just had to look at it from a different point of view.  
  
He stared at the page with half open eyes, read it backwards and upside down, held a mirror up to it and tapped it with his wand, all to no avail.  
  
Pointless. He thought. Everything is so pointless, life just like to play little games, dangling hope in front of your face and snatching the opportunity away, leaving the hope with no appeal. He started daydreaming, and remembering.  
  
"Harry, don't go in there." "Lupin, we've got to face Voldemort at some point." "It's too dangerous, we need organization...it could be a trap..." "I'M GOING!!"  
"No , you're not!!!" Lupin blasted him with and immobilization curse. Harry's eyes sparked with hatred.  
It was a spur of the moment dedication. Lupin grabbed the paralyzed Harry and threw him back against the tree and ran in the building himself. In the dark, cold quiet, he heard a yell and saw a flash of light...  
He ran out of the building just as it collapsed. Bits of shattered glass scratched his entire body... ...wait...  
  
"Revealing spell!!" Lupin cried triumphantly. The old, forgotten spell... was it just an old wives tale? Would it really decode this spell? Was this the spell it was supposed to decode?  
  
"Worth a try," he thought and whispered,  
  
"Silver rain a frozen gray, endless night and darkened days..."  
  
Tonks and Snape walked into the room. "Lupin, what on earth..."  
  
"Strip away the living mask..."  
  
The spell book started to glow a warm purple. "Lupin, stop!" Snape leaped for him...  
"Incantum of revealeas!!"  
  
Snape fell back as if pushed by an invisible force and stared helplessly as the purple light grew and surrounded Lupin. Lupin smiled ironically and whispered the words that appeared on the page in purple glowing ink.  
"Mortenium chronalia Reversus!!"  
  
"Harry, don't go in there." "Lupin, we've got to face Voldemort at some point..."  
  
Lupin stopped.  
  
"Professor..."  
  
"Yes, Harry, we do, but not at this point. Put on your invisibility cloak and give me my wand."  
  
Harry was about to protest but Lupin just grabbed the wand himself and threw the cloak over the two of them. Then he whispered, Nepenthium, an old, little-known spell to hide emotions.  
  
Then he just hoped.  
  
The dementors floated towards the tree, breathing those cold, rattling sighs. The cold, foggy air blurred Lupin's vision, he could barely see their silhouettes Lupin could fell Harry's whole body shiver. Suddenly the building exploded, and shattered glass flew everywhere. The invisibility cloak flew off them. Lupin frantically looked for it until he realized the dementors were beneath the rubble.  
  
Suddenly he realized... the dementors didn't kill Harry... but then...  
  
He found the invisibility cloak and draped it over Harry.  
  
And waited.  
  
Voldemort apparated quickly, without warning. "My dementors..." He saw their mottled hands under the wreckage. "Harry, where is he?" he screamed at Lupin.  
  
"Buried alive. Your work is done. As is mine." He stared at the shattered glass of the ground. I could end it here, He thought to himself. Voldemort couldn't torture me for information, and I wouldn't have to worry about making another mistake and hurting someone else. Because he had realized he had no way of getting back to the correct time.  
His eyes rested on the tree for a moment, realizing that these were  
most likely the last moments of his life.  
I've got to play this out. For Harry, for the Order, for everyone.  
He looked Voldemort in the eyes and said "Hit me with your best shot."  
  
Review, please! Also I dunno how Lupin's gonna get out of this, but he  
will, because I will have my Chapter 2!!!! 


	2. Wraiths

_Disclaimer- you know this gets incredibly old after a while. I own nothing._

It was blurry, unfocused, unfinished like thoughts or dreams or images or perhaps a photograph or portrait, weathered by time.

Slow, deliberate, that's how everything seemed to be happening even though it was rash, swift, over, gone, shifting like sand and temporary as the tide.

He was so angry and so sorry and then everything is so pointless, all for nothing, all for nothing...

He had acted, and now he was going to pay the price.

Valiant, reckless. Undaunted.

He had saved Harry, and he was going to be murdered by Voldemort.

Or at least that's the way it seemed.

He heard a yell, saw the flash of black robes and the set expression on his young face; Angry, audacious, IDIOTIC...

"Harry! No!!!" Lupin screamed. 

His valiancy would be his downfall! Lupin would have done all this for nothing, they would both be dead and Voldemort would conquer the wizarding world and there would be no one to give information to the Order...

Voldemort raised his wand, it was the end...

_Susrever Ailanorhc Muinetrom_!!!

Lupin raised questioning eyes to Harry, who bellowed those nonsense words out of nowhere.

But he had no time to dwell on it, he was suddenly engulfed in whirlpools of light, sound, color, images, and his senses were anesthetized.

...So he looked through all the history books and all the old spell books, even the forbidden ones they weren't even supposed to think about. It was a dusty backroom in the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters. The atmosphere was thick, dusty, quiet. Old and undisturbed.

_Like a tomb._

_ He searched until he came unto a spell in an old spell book that for some reason caught his attention. It was just a spell for cleaning dishes, and a very outdated one at that. But somehow..._

"What are you doing, Professor?" 

He looked up from the spell book to see mischievous green eyes, playfully regarding him with an amused expression.

He smiled, remembering.

"Nothing important," he replied quietly, lost in thought. 

Harry stared at him inquiringly. "What are you thinking about, right now?"

Vaguely he wondered if Harry remembered what had taken place. 

"Oh, that..." Harry began...

Best he forgets and isn't scarred with memories...

Lupin raised his wand. "Obliv-"

And stopped.

He had a right to remember.

**********************

Author's note- You might be confused about the spell Harry used to send them back to the right time. Well, if you go back to Nepenthium and read the spell Lupin used to go BACK IN TIME (not the revealing spell) then read Harry's spell again, you'll get it. How did Harry find this out? Hmmm... mebbe you should read Chapter 3...


	3. Elucidation

  This may strike you as tedious and long. Please R&R anyway, you'll be glad you did. On the note of "you'll be glad you did," I also suggest you read my 2 prequels to this, "Nepenthium", then "Wraiths" (Sorry, I'm a vocabulary freak). It will make this story 1- more interesting and 2- much easier to comprehend. You're thinking this will take time. WELL guess what- it will, but not too much time, and I PROMISE you will be so glad you did, it's really interesting. Thank you and good night!!!( or morning, or afternoon...)

Elucidation 

He stares at startlingly green eyes, thinking. 

            "Thought you might be wondering, Professor..." he began.

 "Indeed." He said, smiling.

"But I can't really remember what you know and don't know..."

"Harry. How did... what was that...?"

"The spell? I'm not quite sure what it was or how I remembered it... but what was odd was that some of the things you said in front of the cave... I dunno, sounded familiar... silly, right?"

            "Well..." began Lupin hesitantly.

            "It's silly."

            "No, actually, ah... see, you're supposed to be dead."

            Harry stared at him awhile. 

            Lupin sighed, and pulled out his wand. "Can't have you thinking I'm insane. Forget all this. Obliv-"

            "Stop."

            Lupin was silent. Watching, waiting.

            "I remember."

            Lupin waited. 

            "I remember being dead."

            "Harry..."

            "No, I do. I remember." His eyes looked odd, the expression in them was quite indescribable.  Fear? Depression? Perhaps just thoughtfulness?

"I see," said Lupin, thinking, wondering.

"Professor Lupin, there's something you're not telling me."

            He sighed. Finally he said 

            "Come this way."

He picked up the dusty book and opened it to a particular page.

            "See..."

            "See what?"

            Lupin looked at the page. It was just a spell for cleaning dishes, and a very outdated one at that.

            "Oh, no..."

            "What?"

            Lupin didn't know what would happen if he repeated the revealing spell, it had made quite a show last time. But he couldn't remember the time travel spell...

            He sighed, and said,

            "Stand back, Harry."

            He obliged, and Lupin said,

            "_Silver rain a frozen gray, endless night and darkened days, strip away the living mask_, _Incantum of revealeas!!"_

Harry's eyes widened as purple script appeared on the page.

            _Mortenium chronalia Reversus___

"What's that?" he asked, but Lupin was still reading, eyes scanning down the page, concentrating, focused intensely.

"That explains it," he whispered, awestruck. "Everything."

            "What?" said Harry, then started to read, and his face took on the same expression as Lupin's.

_Time to you has not been kind_

_The one you seek is the one you will find_

_And to the one who casts this spell_

_I bid you luck, and fare thee well_

_For if you say the spell above_

_With nerve of steel, but heart of love_

_History will not repeat_

Or get lost in blind deceit 

_Your story will have a happy end,_

_No matter what it takes, my friend._

            "Mortenium Chronalia Reversus" Harry began, "Was the time travel spell," he said, eyes lighted, comprehending.

        "The riddle," said Lupin. "I didn't read the riddle. _Your story will have a happy end,_

_No matter what it takes, my friend. _It makes sense, somehow... you, who had no prior knowledge of the spell, were able to say it, and backwards, to add to the idiosyncrasy, sending us back, and..."

                        "Our story had a happy end," Harry finished

But then he said softly, "There's more, there's still, I don't know who..." Then, he saw something on the page that captured his attention. He smiled and said, 

"Professor, look."

            Lupin looked at him questioningly for a moment, but scanned his eyes down to the bottom of the page, where Harry pointed. He read aloud,

                                           _Now that time is in its time _

_                                          I now take an instant end this rhyme, _

_                                         One last thing, since you've found what you've lost,_

_                                          I told you so Moony. Love, your friend Prongs._

            Lupin stared. Harry stared. Silent.

            There was nothing more to be said.

                                                             ~fin~

Author's note- If I do say so myself, the ending is satisfying, to me at least. If you don't get it, email me, to explain it would just about ruin it.


End file.
